Watchers, I could use some help!

                                                                                           Acrylic, 6x6"

I painted this for a challenge at Daily Paintworks.  They have a weekly challenge and anyone who wants to can put a painting on the site showing their take on the subject.  I am getting closer to being ready to join Daily Paintworks, where the artists are able to post up to one new painting per day for sale.  I figured posting to the challenge page was a good way to try out the technicals.  The challenge I painted this one for was in June....it may be a bit goofy to paint for a challenge that was a few months ago, but my point was to NOT be seen!  If I messed it up, I didn't want anyone to notice!

My main reason for trying one of the challenges (and the part I could use your help with) was to see how the quality of my photograph of the painting looked in comparison to others on the page.  I'm not really asking you to judge the quality of my painting itself, although I am always open for comments.  But, if you are so inclined, I would really appreciate if you would go look at the challenge page and see if my PHOTOGRAPH is decent enough to join and post paintings there.  This was photographed with natural light, rather than the studio lighting set-up, so I will have to paint for another challenge so I can test out the formal lights.

How to find it....still haven't learned how to put a direct link on my posts....so...go to dailypaintworks.com  Then at the top, there are tabs---choose the one for Challenges, scroll down to June 23, the Reading Challenge and click on that.  My painting as of this morning was the second one, I guess cause I just posted.

Thanks!  Any comments/advice much appreciated.

Please be Gentle!

                                                                                          Acrylic 6x6"

Actually, please feel free to say whatever you want.  I think this photo is a little blurry, but it was the best I could do today.  I meant to put in some skin tones on the male's face, but when I got to this point, I was afraid I would ruin what I had, so I just called it done!

Kind of different for me, but thought it was time I showed you another painting.  I am trying to paint what I want as I want, and to embrace the things that acrylics allow me to do (especially painting in layers).  I don't know where this path will lead me, but I feel things are evolving for me with my painting....

 Oh...the blue to the left of the female dancer was accidental.  I have a terrible habit of continuing to paint when it is too dark to see well. 

I do need to do something about my indoor lighting.....           

My Grandmother's Bowl

                                                                                   Acrylic 6x6"

Here's another one I never showed you.  This was painted in March 2012.  Painted outside.  Was quite challenging.

In terms of current work, I'm still doing studies.  Hopefully getting closer to showing you something new.  The studies are kind of personal right now.  They have to do with finding my voice and way of working.  Nothing I feel comfortable showing yet, but hopefully will get there one of these days.

I've also been busy having a cold (over it now) and getting ready for a trip/workshop in October.  I have to get ready now so I don't feel rushed.

Thanks again, Watchers!

Found a Couple I Never Showed you

                                                                                                 Acrylic, 6x6"

This was painted the same day as the one on the very first post of this blog.  I used a different brand of acrylics for this one and wanted to see how it would look with the yellow background.  Just thought I would show this, since I'm mostly painting studies right now and don't want to post them, at least not yet.

Thanks for looking, Watchers!

Featureless Faces

                                                                                          Acrylic, 8x10

I was so proud to watch this young girl I know play in front of a large audience at a weekly summer outdoor event called Shindig on the Green.  She played with a group of other fiddlers, along with their teacher.  The very next day, I just had to paint this from one of the photos I took that night.  I am happy with this painting because I obviously didn't just paint what I saw in the photograph AND because everyone who has seen the painting and knows the little girl has said, "That's Ellie!"  I am so happy to be able to capture her body language (if not her likeness!). I have no idea where that background came from, it just happened, and I liked it.

So what's with the blank face?  I LIKE paintings with blank faces.  I have seen some paintings with blank faces that truly made me feel that if the face had features, it would detract from the painting.  I feel the same of my own painting, although perhaps artists who know how to paint features might say otherwise!  Maybe I would say otherwise if I had the skill to paint Ellie's likeness, but I do not, so I'm sticking with the blank faces.  Apologies in advance to my 6 year old nieces (who just KNOW faces have features!).

Today is a milestone birthday for one of my very dear friends, and I want to wish her a very wonderful birthday! 

Semi-limited Palette

                                                                                           Acrylic, 5x7"

I enjoyed painting this, but it looks a good bit like the photograph, which as I have said, isn't really what I want to be doing.  I really did like this photograph, though, so maybe that is why it was kind of fun to paint.

I forgot to tell you that ever since that workshop where I painted the seated artist (post of July 29), I have been using a semi-limited palette.  I think a typical artist palette is two blues, two reds, two yellows (a cool and warm version of each color) plus white.  Since we were painting in between storms, I used a limited palette to do the artist painting I like so much (limited palette by default).  I can't exactly remember what colors I used, but basically used whatever was left on my palette, which was a little of one blue, one red, and one yellow.

I liked the results and I liked not having to wonder whether to choose the warm of cool version of a color each time I needed a new mixture.  So, I decided since then to simplify my mixing and just use one red, one yellow, and one blue, and white PLUS my own addition of orange, because I really like having a premixed orange to make greys with.  I'm calling the palette semi-limited because of the addition of orange.  The orange moves me to the warm in a way my other colors do not.   Maybe a kind of strange choice, but I am really liking using these colors.  I imagine I will keep using this palette until I can see for myself what I am missing by leaving any of the other colors out, then will add them back in if I really know what I need them for.  Until I know what I am missing, I don't really need them.

                                                                     

Try Again Rose

                                                                                         Gouache, 6x6"

Oh, Roses....why am I troubling myself with roses again?  Two reasons:  1)  I had a rose and 2) a couple of weeks ago the "challenge" on Daily Paintworks was to paint a rose.  You should see all the amazing rose paintings I saw on Daily Paintworks.  If you go to dailypaintworks.com and click on the "Challenges" tab at the top, then find the recent "paint a rose" challenge, you can see what I mean.....absolutely amazing.  I'm off to go look at them again.  And I'm probably done painting roses for this year.  I painted this rose one more time and then washed all the paint off the board.  Luckily when I paint on these Aquabords, I can wash off water-based paint and reuse the board if I want to.  The rose is actually still living, still paintable.  It's so beautiful in real life.  I really should try to resist painting it again.  For the sake of my sanity.....

Painting Daily (just about)

                                                                                          
                                                                                       Gouache, 6x6"

                                               
In my last post, I said that I would paint daily, at lunchtime, until Aug. 18, in order to decide whether to join Daily Paintworks this month.  Well, I have been painting on my lunch hours, just haven't been posting.  I don't FINISH a painting everyday, but I do paint every day.  It's fairly comical, in that I end up having about 15 minutes to paint, by the time I've had my lunch, set up to paint, and left enough time at the end to clean up and get back to work on time.  This painting was blocked in during one of those fifteen minute periods.   It's funny what happens to proportions when one rushes to get a painting blocked in....  I worked on this more today at home.   I found the challenge was to make what they are sitting on look like what it was (a hay bale) without so much detail that the hay bale distracted from the girls.

As usual, I am not happy with how the photo represents the painting.  I think there is some distortion in the size of things.  I had to use my "straighten" function when working on the photo in Picasa, and I suspect it is making things look narrower.  To my eye, things are looking thinner than they look in the painting, especially the girl in red.   I would like to paint this one again in acrylic next time.  The gouache is just so, so convenient for using at lunchtime.

Thanks for stopping by, Watchers!

Birthday Gift

                                                                                        Acrylic, 5x7"

                                                                                                  Acrylic, 5x7"
                                             
I already gave this painting away, so I don't have it here to compare how it looks in the photo vs. in real life.  Stef and Tiana have this one now, so they will know how well the photo captures the painting.  Happy Birthday again to Stef and Tiana!

Another from Past Month (and Happy Birthday, Tiana!)

                                                                                   Acrylic, 6x6"

Here's another one from the past month that I neglected to show you.  I'll say it again, "Roses are  HARD!"  I  don't think I completely got what I wanted with the rose, but I kind of like this painting's overall design.

Hoping a very special niece has a very wonderful birthday!